A sunny garden on the Isle of Wight, with a glass of fresh orange juice and a plate of toast and Marmite.

Alone, in a place of utter peace.

With the wash of the sea in the distance, birds singing, pears ripening fatly on the trees and gentle flower scents wafting on a warm breeze. An elderly ginger cat ambling around the flower-beds and a red squirrel climbing cautiously along the fence to investigate some nuts on the bird-table.

Perfect.

Maybe your perfect moment is different. Maybe it isn’t peace and solitude – perhaps you’re celebrating at a happy family gathering, or sipping tequilas on a palm-fringed beach with friends, or looking out at a crowded auditorium, finishing the best speech of your life, as the audience erupts in applause.

But we can’t always stay in those perfect moments. Life has a way of intruding. We have families, jobs, friends, responsibilities – and life won’t just be ignored while we sit around drinking orange juice in sunny gardens.

You can make a career change yourself, or have it thrust upon you. Either way it can be scary.

When you’re in your 40s or 50s, leaving a job you’ve had for years makes you feel the way a snail would feel about having its shell removed – it may have weighed you down and slowed your progress, but losing it hurt you a lot, and now you’re unprotected and on your own against the world. And a slug.